COMMENT: The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Firstly, the Privacy Commissioner has had to “temporarily withdraw for review” his guide to the information that landlords may require from prospective tenants, and what he believed should not be required.

This exemplar appeared to adopt an idealistic stance, where privacy concerns overrode all other considerations. Implemented, it would have made tenant selection a hazardous process.

Fortunately, sanity quickly prevailed and the document has now been removed from the public’s view.

The second, and much more agonising, fall from grace is the now open admission that KiwiBuild is a dog. A dog with fleas, as one commentator put it.